LA Sports Museum

[GloveCrazy]

A new sports museum opened to the public in downtown Los Angeles Thanksgiving Weekend that is absolutely phenomenal. PHENOMENAL! It is literally the size of a large grocery store and stocked with seemingly never-ending display rooms of the highest-end sports collectibles I have ever seen.

It would take pages and pages to describe the extent of the collection (which is all owned by collector Gary Cypress), but it is no exaggeration to say that the top end of almost anything related to sports collectibles is there, and there in multiple variations. From multiple sets of fingerless gloves, workmans, ambidextrous, etc, to four Executioner style football helmets, to numerous Spalding trophies (and many other huge one-of-a-kind trophies), to every old baseball game (the big coin operated ones and board game variety), to the old poster size glove ads and movie posters, to mushroom and decal bats galore, ancient trophy balls, and nearly full runs of most pre 40s cards (including the T206 Wagner).

Jim Daniel, Ricky "Bulldog" and I went together and we were literally shaking our heads in disbelief the whole time. It's hours later and I'm still stunned. The displays are as top quality as the artifacts themselves. All I can say is that if you ever get the chance do not hesitate to visit, and please drop me a note if you are in the area.

My website is back up but with a new URL: www.glovecrazy.com. I've posted some pictures in my HodgePodge page, but even then they just don't do the museum justice. It's the Smithsonian book times fifty.

[vintagebrett]

Those pictures are amazing, thanks for sharing! My wife has wanted to go to SoCal on vacation for a couple of years - I think we just found a good reason to go!

[softball66]

Rob, thanks for the heads up and for sharing the super pix. Did you fellows
have any idea the museum was going to open, ahead of time? Are any of you in touch with Gary? I know he's been around for a long time collecting.
How long will the museum be open?

[BigD-Moonlight]

Rob, thanks for showing us the great pictures from the museum. I will be sure to visit it next time I am in So Cal.
John

[Centerfield]

Here's a video link to the museum...

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=6512843


Anybody know what kind of security system is being used there?!?!

[oldballfan]

Thanks for link to the video, looks like another "If we are in the area, we gotta stop", kinda place.

[GloveCrazy]

Thanks for the ABC news link/video ... it's the best of seen on it so far. I've added it and several other links to videos and articles to my website. Rather than repeating them all, you can access them through www.glovecrazy.com/hodge.htm. Feel free to copy them here if that is easier for everyone.

All I can say is that it is a day later and I am still stunned at the amount of top quality items there was under one roof. As an example, I'm a novice trophy collector and was just floored when I walked into the trophy room and saw the full run of Spalding trophies with another ten or so non Spaldings equally as large or larger and just as spectacular. Then as went into the other areas, I was just floored when similar top quality trophies were in other displays as well (just to add variety to the other displays). It was similar with advertising pieces, baseballs, bats, masks, uniiforms, panoramic pictures, etc. It was literally like looking through "a best of" of auction gallery listings.

I had heard rumors about the museum being in existence for private showings, but I hadn't heard of the public opening until Ricky contacted me last week about it.

I think the plan is to have it there longterm, but there sure is a lot of expense in maintaining it (I hope it catches on with the public). There were probably 15 or so security persons onsite and security cameras everywhere. I know the cameras are actively monitored because a security guard came around the corner soon after I had my camera out. I hope they loosen the linitation of photos, or at least add them to their website.

Still amazed!
Rob

[stockbuddy]

WOW!!

Rob, did they charge people to go through this museum!!! That was so cool. Thanks for sharing pics and thanks to centerfield for the video clip. Where there more gloves beyond the old timers we saw in your pics and this video. I love the evolution of the gloves and mitts depicted. Wish I could come out and see the museum and visit you, JD and Ricky.

Super cool!.

Rob, glad you got your website up and going again.

Dave

[Rickybulldog]

I still am amazed at what these eyes have seen.
Must add my 2 cents:

Heard about this a few months ago on a Fred Roggin show, but never said when the official open date was going to be. It wasn't until last week, when the lady who cleans our house (who knows I collect) sent me an article about the grand opening. So, I decided to contact my SO CaLers JD and Rob. I think this was the first time we actually went somewhere together besides doing the batting practice thing. The planets must of alligned right to get our schedules to work. Haha! Wow! What a day.

As we walked through the museum, I was amazed at what this collection consisted of. We, of course, started in the equipment section and were floored from the examples he had on display. Finger tip, workmen's, crescents, ambidextrous, duck web to name a few could be seen there. Even a tornado palm fielder's glove. I had only seen one in pictures and now one was in front of me under thick plastic. Lots of great examples, but I knew we were going to come back for a second walk through.

I couldn't help but laugh to myself as Jim Daniel commented that "He had chills even though it wasn't cold." I too had that feeling of anticipation and excitement as I turned every corner. We were like the sandlot kids in Mr. Mertle's living room in the movie The Sandlot.

Each room seemed to "trump" the other as we continued to walk. It was almost like "Oh, by the way you thought all 5 Spalding trophies were neat..........How about 3-4 Executioner helmets!!!" Every room was wall to wall with amazing pieces. Another thing that I thought was absolutely wild was that he had the early golf balls. Amazing since these balls (I've read) were only good for 18 holes!!!

The trophies and glove rooms were by far my favorite, but the baseball board/arcade games were a close runner up. I made the mistake of saying that he was missing a game that Rob had in his possession, but as I turned the corner I had to say "never mind." Haha!

We walked that huge musem 2 times and each time I saw something different each walk through. It was by far the best collection of different pieces I had ever seen. After, Rob and I couldn't believe the examples we saw and thought it was amazing that one person could have the best/most sought after items for each field. For example, we assume they're is someone that is tops at trophies or gloves, but this museum housed most of the top examples of each aspect of sports collecting!

Amazing day that I got to share with my good friends Rob and JD. Thanks again Rob for driving. I tried to find a guest book so we all could write our names and numbers with a note that we were open for trades!!! Ha ha!

Joel you gotta come down sometime.

[Bravosin99]

Jim, Rob, Ricky-

Looks like an amazing place. Looks like this is the guy we need to get a hold of for our first crescent lol. He has enough to give everyone in the hobby one for Christmas . To bad this place wasn't around when I was out there and visited with you guys that would have been another great stop. Although my head was already spinning from all the nice stuff I saw that day between the two collections.

I will be in Vegas Jan 7-10 to bad I couldn't meet up with you guys again. Never say never I guess, maybe we can work something out again.

Josh

[hal barth]

What a great place this would be to visit. Sounds like the site for a glove collectors get together that others were discussing earlier in the year. I would try to attend.

[mudman]

Thanks so much for sharing. I know you guys had a great time!

[cubsrno1]

Thanks for sharing this. It looks like an amazing place from the pictures I saw. I'm sure everyone in this forum appreciate the photos you guys took. Ricky, I might just take you up on your offer to go there and visit that place.

Joel

[ebbets55]

Simply amazing. I'm speechless. Rob and Ricky already gave the general details. I took particular note of the gloves. Here's a quick glove inventory.

There were two sets of fingerless gloves.

There was a set of full fingers and the matching fingerless.

There were two different finger tipped gloves, one righty and one lefty.

There were five or six webless workman's gloves and a couple webless crescents. There were some cool ones. (A couple on the site already with "Unknown" next to them - I'll change that).

There were three mitten type catchers mitts and a couple of crescent basemitts from the '90's.

There was one tornado palm (the one from the site). Now I know who has it. That still only makes one.

There were two ambidextrous gloves, one Ripon 20's like mine and one Spalding teens.

There was a Ratsch Peerless duckweb (one more I didn't know about).

There was a 40's catchers mitt with no web or break in it. It was a perfect circle from the front. Pretty cool.

There was a Goldsmith youth Matty off in another room that didn't even make the glove display.

The three of us were simply speechless on the way home. We couldn't praise it enough. It seemed to be neverending and he had plans for expansion to get the hockey and boxing rooms up. It was the most extensive private collection I have ever seen.

Rob and Ricky, I looked at my saved articles and I came across the write-up from when Gary hosted the Mastro dinner at the National in Anaheim a few years ago. The glove display was totally different. He must have changed it when he opened it to the public. Thanks Ricky for alerting us to when it opened. I'm glad we all got to go hang out together. Let's go again!

JD

[GloveCrazy]

A couple answers to some of the questions below. There weren't many post 30s gloves, glove boxes, or endorsed gloves, which was one of the only areas I thought should be expanded. I wouldn't be surprised if over time he uses the back wall of the glove evolution (which currently has old baseballs) to complete the glove evolution. He's got all the real tough oldies, though.

As for cost, it wasn't cheap but it was well worth it. I'm hopeful that it catches on, but $17.50 per adult is on the pricier side for the non collector. However, and I know this is a little blasphemous, for what I collect I'd much rather re visit it than re visit Cooperstown. I came out of Cooperstown longing for more displays of older stuff (though there were some great gamers). I came out of this one in utter amazement.

We've always been open to another glove collector get-together in Southern CA, and we'd be pleased to host another.